The Observer
by silverkitten919
Summary: Sam's brain worked differently to anyone else he knew. If he had to describe it he would say a normal person sees a coin as a coin but when Sam looks at a coin he sees the ridges around the edge, how many columns are on the building pictured on the front, the little scratch on the right side of the building, he see's it all. Sam/Santana friendship, Sam/Mercedes eventual couple.


**I always liked the idea of Glee exploring the idea of one of the character having a mental disability of some sort which they started to do with Sam but never really achieve so I am going to give it ago. **

**I hope you like it. **

**Also I don't own glee otherwise Finn would have stayed in the Army and wouldn't be moping around Mckinnely once again. It is getting really old... just saying. It also means I have pretty much completely disregarded the episode **_**The Break Up**_** in this story.**

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**The Observer**

Sam was different; he had always known it and it made him feel like a freak. He had been bullied about his differences at his previous school and it hurt so badly because Sam could quite literally see what they thought of him. They saw him as some sort of weird alien or something. When he came to McKinnely Sam swore he wouldn't let himself get into that situation again so during the holidays he started to work out, he built up muscle, dyed his hair and change the clothes he wore. But the end he looked like every other popular jock that had ever looked at him like he was a freak. He might no longer look like a freak on the outside but he still felt like one on the inside.

Sam's brain worked differently to anyone else he had ever met and as such he was curse with a very different way of looking at the world. If he was to describe it he would say when a normal person sees a coin they just see a coin but when Sam looks at a coin he sees the ridges around the edge, how many columns are on the building pictured on the front, the little scratch in the right hand side of the building, he see's absolutely everything. Convert that way of looking to a person and Sam would see the twitch in their eyes which indicated nervousness, the almost invisible twitch of the corner of the mouth of a hidden smile. He knew what a person was feeling and to some point what they were thinking just by the almost invisible signs of their expression and body movement.

Of course his world was very distracting and it paid a hard price on the boy. Sam found it very hard to concentrate on the more mundane parts of life like school, he found people so much more interesting. Tests were a nightmare for him, it was not that he wasn't smart or that he didn't know the answer cause they were all filed away there in the back of his brain subconsciously picking them up as he took in the world through his unique eyes. Sam couldn't concentrate on a test in a room packed full of people silently communicating through their body expressions and Sam could never focus on the boring black and white piece of paper in front of him long enough to get anywhere near the end of the test. He was lucky to get half way through the test, the questions he answered would be right but Sam's mind preferred to wander to the people around him because people were so much more interesting than everything else. Sam always wrote the whole thing off as dyslexia as it was just so much easier than trying to explain it to anyone or face people thinking he was a freak.

Santana was the first one he opened up to about it and that was because he was trying to help her. It backfired a little, but she loved him for trying.

It had been one evening when they were 'dating' and the two of them were studying in his room that Sam dared to broach a topic with her, "So... Brittany?"

"What about Brittany?" She snapped and went into full defence mode.

"You like her. She likes you too."

"What..." She stuttered, shit she had been caught out, how was it that it was day dreamer Sam that caught her out... "No of course I don't! What are you suggesting? I'm gay?"

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with..."

"Shut your mouth Trouty. You know nothing..." With that she stormed out of his room down the stairs out the front door and sped off home in tears... Shit Sam knew! How did he know.

So Santana initiated plan B, She black mailed Karofsky into being her beard.

That night after the glee club had done there big Born This Way sing along. Santana was sitting alone in her room when she heard a knock on her second story window and Sam perched on the window sill. He gestured for her to let him in, how the hell had he gotten up there anyway? She gestured for him to go away. He yelled through the glass that he didn't think he could get down without falling and she gave in with a defeated sigh and let him in.

"Thanks," He said with his big goofy grin, "So why didn't you want me as your beard?"

"My what?" She was still acting in denial in a desperate and fruitless hope that he would leave it alone.

"Beard, when a gay person dates someone else to hid the fact that they are gay? Why would you choose Karofsky over me?" He sounded a little hurt.

"What... are you saying that you're gay Sam?"

"Wha..t..No! It just that when we started dating you wanted someone to hide the fact that you were gay and I wanted someone that would make Quinn jealous and scare off all the other cheerleaders that would have come after me once I was single. Win win situation for both of us."

"You knew I was gay when we started dating?"

"Santana, I've know you have been crushing on Brittany since the first time I walked into glee club and you kept throwing tiny glances at her."

"What... does anyone else know?"

"Relax, No, just me."

"But how...?" Santana though she had been so discrete.

"I see things differently than most people, my brain works differently..." And after a bit of prodding Sam opened up to her about the weird place that was his mind and she was intrigued to say the least.

The next day in the cafeteria Santana and Sam sat alone at a table Santana putting Sam's power of observance to the test, well she was comparing it to her gaydar at least. "Karofsky?" She started off with.

"Gay!" Sam stated, "He's got a crush on Kurt and..."

"And who?"

"Me..." Sam mumbled, "He keeps staring at my arse... it is really off putting!"

Santana chuckled at that, yep she had picked up on the fact that he was interested in Sam but not on the Kurt one, more blackmail material for her.

"Azmino?"

"Straight."

"Oh, damn." She didn't think he was gay but it would have been awesome black mail material if he was.

"But he did do some experimenting with Watson over the summer, Football camp was a bag of nerves between the two of them."

"What...?" Santana couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sam gave her a devilish smile that reminded her a lot of her own.

"Jacob Ben Israel?"

"That guy is straight, he only has eyes for Rachel's tits."

It was at this time that the rest of the glee club came in and started lining up for food and Santana got curious.

"Finn?"

"Straight, he's kinda creeped out by gay people." he saw fire in Santana's eyes, "No, I didn't mean it like that, he is scared of guys crushing on him. I think Kurt did something because there was a few weeks there where Kurt was ashamed and Finn was freaked out." God Sam noticed everything.

"Rachel?" Sam sighed, he knew exactly where this was going

"Rachel is straight, as in Tina, Artie, Mike and Quinn obviously otherwise I wouldn't have been dating her. Kurt is Gay, Brittany is Bi about 50/50 boy/girl."

"Hey!" Santana had picked up a name that was missing from the straight group, "What about Puck?"

"I was getting to him, Puck is semi bi about 80/20 girl/boy."

"What? You're saying that Puck is interested in guys? I don't believe you."

"Yeah, but it has to be a very specific type of guy."

"Elaborate?"

"A guy who is more kick arse than him. Seriously, you haven't noticed his pants get a little hard when he is watching an action film. I have to make sure I sit somewhere where nothing is insight when we all sit down as a group to watch a movie."

Santana was shocked to say the least but she couldn't say anymore because they were suddenly bombarded with the rest of the glee club and it was clear that Sam wasn't at all keen on them finding out about his 'uniqueness'.

Santana caught up with Sam at his locker after school to do more investigating with his 'gift', she wanted to ask about coach Sylvester's sexuality by he didn't seem to be in the best of moods. "What's up with you, Trouty?"

"Nothing." He grunted, throwing his stuff into his bag to go home.

"It doesn't look like nothing... she said grabbing his arm as he tried to turn away from her, come on tell Aunty Santana your troubles. Come on Sam, you have busted enough of mine open this week it is your turn to share.

"Arh, fine then!" He said as he reached in and pulled out his latest Spanish test and handed over to her and she looked shocked when she saw a big F in the top corner. She flipped through the paper. The questions Sam had answered were perfect, not even a single grammatical error, the problem was that Sam only got about a third of the way through the paper.

"But how Sam? You're smart?" He used to quiz her when they were dating and he used to speak to her and her family in Spanish all the time. How was he getting an F in Spanish?

"I can't concentrate in class, there are too many distractions. I try to focus on the paper I really do but then someone will move of share a glance with someone else and my concentration is gone.

"Can I keep this?" She asked, she had an idea.

"Ok, I guess." He said uncertainly but he really didn't want to have to take that paper home to his parents soo...

"Cool, I will see you tomorrow Sam." And with that Santana ran down the hall in the other direction straight to Mr Shue's office.

She knocked on the door glad to see he was still there. "Mr Shue, can I talk to you?"

"Sure Santana, what is this about?"

She dropped Sam's test on his desk, "It's about Sam."

"How did you get that?" he asked her in confusion.

"Sam gave it to me. He doesn't disserve an F Mr Shue, the questions he answered he answered perfectly."

"I know Santana, but he failed to answer over half the paper and the school rules say that I have to give him a zero for each question he fails to answer."

"You know that Sam has a disability don't you Mr Shue?"

"Yeah, Dyslexia, but there isn't much I can do about it Santana, Sam just needs to study harder."

"No, Mr Shue, Sam's not dyslexic, do these look like the answers of some one that has trouble learning. You would expect there to be wrong answers in here if it were dyslexia. No, Sam's disability is totally different, he just uses the dyslexia as an excuse so he doesn't have to explain the real issue to anyone." And Santana went and explained Sam's real 'disability' to Mr Shue and he was amazed.

"Can he resit the test somewhere where he is away from all distractions so he can focus on the test?"

"I don't know Santana, he has already seen this test... people could say that he just went home and learnt the answers."

"Then write him a new test. Call it an experiment... don't you want to help Sam... What if this does work and Sam could improve his marks... even get into a decent college one day?"

"Alright Santana, a experiment, but if you are right, Sam is going to have to go to a doctor and get himself properly diagnosed and get a doctors letter and everything."

"But he can take the test again?"

"Yes and I know just the place."

Santana didn't know that there was a solitary detention room in the staff commons. It was a tiny white room only 3x3m. It didn't have a window or anything interesting about it at all, just a chair and a desk. While Mr Shue went about writing Sam a new test Santana went about changing out the graffitied desk for a clean one and brushing away the cobwebs and anything else she though Sam might find distracting about the room. Then she texted Sam to meet her at school an hour early.

When Sam rocked up to school an hour early Mr Shue and Santana were waiting for him at the front door. My Shue let them in and then proceeded to explain how Santana had come to him and explain about his condition and how they wanted to run a little experiment. Mr Shue escorted him into the staffroom and into a little room at the back. He asked Sam to sit down and that he would be back with a new test in 15 minutes once Sam had gotten used to the room so there was nothing to distract him. Sam sat in the chair with the door closed and within a minute Sam had taken in all there was in the room. He smiled at the attempted at cleaning but he could see the odd wisps of spider web and the fact that the table had been changed with another one not too long ago judging by the drag lines in the carpet and how the indents left in the carpet by the legs of the old desk didn't line up with the new one. Finally after 15 minutes that seemed like hours Mr Shue was back with a test and pen in hand, Sam own bag left outside. He handed over the pen as well as a pair of earmuff to block out any noise. He checked Sam's pockets and forearms for any signed he might be planning on cheating before telling him that he would be outside till class started and then Miss Pulsberry would take over. He had an hour and a half to do the test and Miss Pulsberry would come in when his time was up. He then made sure Sam had the ear muff on and left the room. It was the most amazing education experience Sam had ever had. For once there was nothing competing for Sam's attention and he could focus on the test and only the test. Sam didn't need the full hour and a half to complete the test he was done with twenty minutes to spare and after 5 minutes of sitting around he braved peaking out of the room to see if he was allowed out early.

Miss P gave him a big smile when she saw him nervously peak out of the room, "How is it going Sam?"

"I'm done, do I need to sit in here for another 15 minutes or can I come out?"

"Finished? And you have checked through everything?"

Sam nodded.

"Well then I don't think there is any reason you can't go. Hand over the test and you can go to class." Since it was Spanish first thing this morning Miss P accompanied him to class and handed his test to Mr Shue. It was conversation today and Mr Shue gestured for him to go and join a group with Tina and Artie. He couldn't help but to nervously glance up every now and then at Mr Shue marking his test. It was so frustrating when he put it aside finished marking it but didn't tell him immediately how he went. Finally Mr Shue announce, "Ok class, you can go, Sam stay behind will you?"

Sam waited for the class to file out and slowly made his way up to Mr Shue desk. "How did I go?" He nervously asked. Mr Shue face was unusually stoic and while Sam would usually be able to read it his own nerves were getting in the way. Mr Shue slid the test over upside down and Sam picked it up and with a deep breath flipped it over. Sitting in the top corner was an A+ and Sam legs because all weak and he had to sit down. This was the first test he had ever finished and it was the first A he had ever gotten.

"Congratulations Sam!" Mr Shue said with a big smile on his face, "And I would say that that test was harder than the one I set last week. The only mistake I could find was that you forgot to put one accent above one e, in fact you used words and grammar above what is expected at this level."

"I picked up a lot from Santana and her family." he admitted still staring at the magical letter on the top of his test. He was going to go home and frame it he swore.

"Now Sam, listen."

"I'm always listening," Sam admitted, "I've never been able to tune anything out."

"We can keep doing your test like this if you want to, I can even talk to your other teachers so you can do all your tests like this but you have to go to a doctor and get a proper diagnosis of your... condition. We need some sort of written confirmation from a doctor or a psychologist."

"I don't know who to go and see." Sam admitted.

"I thought you might say that so I asked Miss Pulberry and she recommended Dr Carter, she is a child psychologist who specialises with children with different... brains... like you. If you want to do this, and I can't make you do it if you don't want to, Miss P is happy to call up and make you an appointment. Dr Carter takes kids referred through school councillor's free so you don't have to worry about the fee. How does that sound Sam?"

"It... It sounds really good Mr Shue." It sounded amazing in fact.

"Ok, I'll talk to Emma. If you go to her office at lunch time I'm sure she will have everything sorted out."

"Thank you so much Mr Shue."

"It's a pleasure Sam. I'm just glad I could help."

The first thing that Sam did once Mr Shue had dismissed him was charge through the corridors looking for Santana. Luckily she was easy to find standing with Quinn and Brittany at their lockers. Sam couldn't contain himself and he launched himself onto the girl with such force that he almost knocked her over. After the initial surprise of a sudden tall blond limpet throwing himself onto her she hugged him back. "Someone is in a happy mood." She managed to get out as he sweezed the living day light out of her, picked her up, spun her around, jumped up and down and then squeezed some more.

"Ok Blondie Biebs, I can't breathe." And he put her down. "So I take it the test went well?" He nodded furiously and handed over his test rocking backwards and forward on his feet in excitement.

"Wow!" She exclaimed at the bright red A+ that graced his test.

"Mr Shue said I only made one tiny, itsy bitsy mistake and that I can take all my test like this if I go and see a doctor and get a proper diagnosis and that there is a psychologist here in Lima who specialises in people like me and will see me for free!" He couldn't help it he picked her up and spun her around again.

Two weeks later Sam walked into the school secretary's office with the precious letter held in his hands. He had been to see Doctor Carter three times and was shocked to find out that what he had we a real condition and it even had a name, one that he couldn't pronounce but a name none the less. After the first two sessions where she had tested Sam in different way, flash cards with pictures on them, movies and talking to him about how he 'saw the would' she told him about the condition he had, how it was rare but other people out there had it. In the last session he had she had taken him through some exercises he could do when he got really overwhelmed like he did when he was in a big crowd. The exercises were good but Sam had already started to develop some of his own ways of coping, mainly music. Music was the one thing that could drown nearly everything else out. That's why he loved glee so much.

Now, everything at school was different. All his test and exams he did in the little detention room at the back of the staff lounge with a pair of ear muff on so nothing could distract him and he went from being one of the lowest scorers in the school to being one of the highest.

Eventually though his friends started asking questions. They were confused when Sam was taken out of the classroom to do his tests and came out of the teacher's lounge afterwards. While his sessions with Dr Carter helped him accept that he wasn't a compete freak he still found it difficult to open up to his friends but eventually he did and much to his shock they didn't think he was a freak, they thought it was really cool. Puck was the first one to embrace Sam's gift/disability in one of his plots to reign terror on the schools teaching staff. Quite quickly Sam found himself being used as a match maker and he didn't mind. A year later Artie and Rory came up to him and asked, "Who is Sugar into?" Sam bit his lip not really wanting to answer that question because he knew while he would make one of them very happy he would make the other very sad because they were both desperately crushing on Sugar. "Come on Sam we know you know."

"She likes Rory more, but she still likes you Artie and if Rory wasn't here..." Rory was jumping up in the air before rushing off to ask Sugar out. Artie looked heartbroken, "I'm sorry Dude. If it makes you feel any better Lilly, the red head cheerleader over there is crushing on you, she thinks you're really smart, though I think if you are going to go out with her it will have to be behind closed doors for a while, because she thinks she will be judged for liking someone in a wheelchair." Artie looked at him like he was crazy. Sam knew that Artie was constantly checking Lilly out in their Chemistry class but had convinced himself that she was way out of his league but Sugar wasn't. Sam scribbled down Lilly's number that he had picked up when he had glanced through Santana's phone and handed it to Artie. "Maybe say that you got her number form Brittany or something when you call her." He suggested before giving his friend a thumbs up and walking away.

Much to his surprise Sam graduated at the top of his year. Even more surprising was his acceptance and full scholarships to multiple IV league colleges all who were willing to work with Sam and his 'disability' as they insisted on calling it. Eventually Sam chose Columbia over Yale, Harvard and Standford (much to his parents' dismay) because New York was where the majority of his friends were going. Tina and Blaine had both followed Rachel and got into NYADA, which caused a riff in Blaine's relationship with Kurt who after two more auditions still couldn't get in but he did have a high ranking job at Vogue and was taking classes at Parson School of Design. They made up eventually with Sam acting as mediator. Mercedes (who Sam was now dating) scored a recording contract with Santana after they were heard singing together at a bar in LA, there was only one condition, the record company that signed the duo was based out of NY and they wanted them to move there. There were no complaints from the two girls, Mercedes transferred from UCLA to NYU and Santana transferred from Louisville to Columbia as she was really enjoying the law degree she had started. The two made it really big creating a mix of power gospel/soul and Latin music that people latched onto. They both had solo careers as well but they kept coming back to each other. When Mike found out Tina was applying for NYADA he went out on a limb wanting her back desperately and tried out for the prestigious NY Ballet Academy and thanks to his year of training in Chicago he got accepted with a half scholarship. Brittany got a full scholarship to the same school. They didn't care about her bad marks but for once someone saw her creativity and freedom of mind and the potential she brought. Brittany thrived in the physical world of the dance school graduating as a principle dancer for the NY Contemporary Ballet Company. Quinn got the surprise of her life when she got a place at Julliard in the acting program (which she chose of Yale) while Artie got into Julliard's directors program the year after. The group of them would find themselves being dragged in to star in his short films for school. Puck and Finn were the only two who didn't end out in NY by the time Sam got there. Finn joined the Army and had a successful career. He got a degree in mechanical engineering through the army and after 15 years retired where Artie gave him a job building animatronics for his latest blockbuster Sci-fi movie (and he eventually got back together with Rachel). Puck did his thing and ended up in stardom by accident. He managed to sleep his way onto a set of an action movie in LA where the director was regretting his casting decision for the lead male. According to Puck, in a fit of rage the director had apparently stormed out at the actor's sissy attempt at a stunt and had come out to find Puck showing off his bad-arse-ness to one of the makeup artists he was trying to lure into bed. He grabbed Puck dragged him onto the set handed him the script told him he had two minutes to memorise the days lines and said action. He pulled it off in true Puck awesomeness and the other actor was promptly fired. Noah, the Puckinator, Puckerman was born.

And as for Sam himself, he went to Columbia and studied psychology and music. He became Dr Sam Evans and while he did a couple of years practicing he was more interested in research, specifically the effects of music on people which his gift (as he now saw it as) help him with. He could quite literally see people's reactions to different music and treatments. He wrote papers and a book on the positive use of music for people suffering from different type of metal disorders, which soon became principle texts that all psychologists used. Sam didn't give up on making or creating music himself either. His gift allowed him to make songs that could rip and tug at people hearts. If he wanted to make them cry he would have them weeping on the floor. If he wanted to make them happy he would have them out of their chairs jumping with joy. Mercedes and Santana (his fiancée and his best friend) often dragged him to the studio with him where they helped him lay down a few songs (just so he could get them out of his head, they told him) which they promptly stole and showed to their producer who immediately signed him and he was an huge success. Ten years after Sam had left Lima for NY he and Mercedes finally decided to tie the knot. They had been engaged for years but they had been so busy that they had never found the time. They wanted it to be special not something they fitted in between world tours, recording sessions and research so they had waited. There first real argument was over who was going to be the best man and maid of honour because they both wanted Santana. Sam wanted Santana (no matter how unconventional) as his best woman as she was his best friend and he had been her best man at her wedding to Brittany. Of course that argument didn't hold up well because Santana was also Mercedes' best friend and she was the maid of honour at that wedding too. They had finally brought the argument to Santana herself who laughed at them and agreed to act in both roles to some extent but she convinced Sam it would be better for her to primarily be Mercedes Maid of Honour as she would need her to make sure she looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress. Sam bowed to her wisdom and selected his little brother Stevie as his best man instead.

Sam was the happiest man on earth when he saw his wife drift down the aisle towards him. Once Santana had placed Mercedes dress perfectly around her as she stood opposite him she gave him a reassuring hug and a kiss on the cheek before she took her place beside Mercedes. It was the first time in a very long while, since being locked in those small rooms in school and College to do his tests that his mind was totally focused on one thing and one thing only, the beautiful woman in front of him. When he leaned forward when the priest said 'you may now kiss the bride' Sam realised he was the luckiest man on earth freak or not.

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**I hope you guys liked it. I think I went a little crazy with the ending but that is how I would like it to work out for all the glee characters in a perfect world.**

**Sam's condition is kind of a more intense way that I see the world. I am really good at reading what people are feeling and thinking from their body language and I see the world in far greater detail than those around me see it and it really does make you feel like an alien. I am studying heritage conversation so I now see it as a blessing rather than a curse like I did in high school.**

**Please read and review**

**Until next time I write **

**919**


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